Mary Gillies

William's business ran into difficulties and after Charlotte's death in 1811, Mary and her younger sister Margaret (1803–1887), were placed under the care of their uncle and aunt, the prominent Unitarians Lord and Lady Gillies, who educated them and introduced them into Edinburgh society.

[2][3] During their time in Edinburgh the two girls were introduced to Thomas Southwood Smith, the powerful new preacher to the Unitarian congregation at Skinners' Hall, Canongate, who was to play a large part in their later lives.

Mary turned to literature and lived with Richard Hengist Horne for several years, sharing houses in Upper Montagu Street, 5 Fortess Terrace, Kentish Town (later renamed 40 Fortess Road) and Hillside, Fitzroy Park Highgate, with her sister and Thomas Southwood Smith.

Mary's final move, in the early 1860s, was to 25 Church Row, Hampstead where she lived with Margaret and for some years they also shared the house with Charles Lewes, son of George Lewes the lover of George Eliot, and his wife Gertrude, Southwood Smith's granddaughter.

In the grave she is interred with an 1866 stillborn baby of Charles & Gertrude Lewes and also with Catherine, the widow of Richard Hengist Horne, who died in 1893.